China Watch Thread-I

Bhurishravas · Post by **Bhurishravas** » 29 Dec 2016 01:23

http://www.smh.com.au/world/xinjiang-at ... tj2ku.html

Beijing: Five people have been killed in China's far-western Xinjiang region after attackers drove a vehicle into a government compound and set off a makeshift explosive device, in an incident the country's official state media have described as a "terrorist attack".

Peregrine · Post by **Peregrine** » 01 Jan 2017 00:01

After losing to India in FDI, China opens up economy more

BEIJING: China, which last year lost the top position as an investment destination to India, has now opened up more sectors for foreign investors to catch up in the race. It is offering a slice of tightly controlled segments like public transport and railway equipment to foreign players besides cutting down the number of restrictions by a third from 93 to 62.

But what prompted Beijing to bite the bullet despite resistance from state-owned enterprises (SOEs) is not just slipping numbers of foreign direct investments. It is worried about US President-elect Donald Trump using China's partially closed market as a reason to launch negative trade actions. Chinese authorities are trying to pre-empt adverse action from Trump, who has accused China of unfair investment practices resulting in the "theft of American jobs".

Trump's antagonism for China might be an opportunity for attracting more FDI in India, observers said. But a lot would depend on effects of the demonitisation decision on foreign investments. The China challenge is not any more than last year. Commerce minister Gao Hucheng admitted on Monday that foreign direct investments grew at a slower rate of 3.8% this year compared to growth of 6.4% seen in 2015. Whether India will manage to retain the top slot this year remains to be seen.

"US-China commercial relations are in for a rough ride in the coming months, as the Trump administration aggressively pushes China to open its markets further to American imports and investment and applies a more critical eye to Chinese investments in the US," Scott Kennedy, deputy director of Freeman Chair in China studies at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, told TOI.

India surged ahead of China after its FDI inflows slipped 23% to $56.6 billion last year. "The big FDI story of the past year is India. After a long period of trailing behind China, the south Asian country is now racing past its formidable rival. India was the highest ranked country by capital investment in 2015, with $63 billion worth of FDI projects announced," said Courtney Fingar, head of content with London-based fDi Intelligence while releasing its 2016 report.

China's National Development Reforms Commission said that the purpose of opening new doors for foreign investors are to "improve transparency of policy-making" and "let foreign capital play a positive role in China's economic development, industry transformation, and reform and innovation". Chinese experts regard the decision as bold because of a terrible slowdown in the Chinese economy and the worldwide trend of protectionism.

But China is aiming at bigger goalpost, analysts say. It is trying to persuade the World Trade Organization to grant China the coveted status of market economy. Beijing says it had been promised by the WTO that it would automatically gain the status after completing 15 years as a member, which it did this month. But the US is determined to resist the move, and the European Union is setting up its own hurdles in China's path.

Beijing is furious that its position as the world's second biggest economy is being ignored by the Western world. But it would not want to leave any stone unturned. Opening up new economy sectors for foreign investments is meant to prove that China is run by free market principals.

An important question is whether the rule change is for real. Some analysts think it has no more than cosmetic value because foreign players face a lot of difficulties on the ground.

"China has only superficially opened up more sectors to foreign investment. The broader environment is still highly restrictive, with wide swaths of the economy either off limits to foreign investors or with ownership caps that require foreign investors to engage in joint ventures with Chinese partners," Kennedy said.

Foreign businesses are unlikely to lap up the new opportunity thrown up by the latest market opening measures. This is evident from surveys of member companies conducted by the American Chamber of Commerce in China and European Chamber of Commerce. The surveys revealed that most of the members are not interested in additional investments and business expansion during this slowdown period in China.

Besides, Washington has already begun to resist Chinese investments and Beijing is getting ready to retaliate. US President Barack Obama recently blocked a Chinese company's purchase of German chip-equipment manufacturer Aixtron on national security grounds. The US Trade Representative also put an online shopping site of China's Alibaba Group on a blacklist of "notorious marketplace" for selling counterfeit goods.

Cheers

Peregrine · Post by **Peregrine** » 07 Jan 2017 03:04

X Posted on the Analyzing CPEC Thread

China wants India in one-belt-one-road meet, India remains wary

NEW DELHI: China is keen on a high-level Indian participation in an international conclave that it plans to host this May to garner support for its mega One-Belt-One-Road (OBOR) connectivity initiative spanning across Europe, Asia and Africa. India, however, remains wary of the ambitious project, especially because it includes China-Pakistan-Economic-Corridor (CPEC) running through PoK.

Delhi has not endorsed OBOR not only because it perceives the move as Beijing’s attempt to expand its influence in the region but also because it includes CPEC. India has lodged regular protests against creating CPEC that challenges sovereignty issue.

Beijing has recently indicated to Delhi that it will host a conference on the OBOR in China and urged a "high-level representative” from India. Delhi, however, remained non-committal, persons familiar with the matter indicated.

Delhi, according to the sources, is still reluctant to endorse OBOR, particularly because Delhi, according to the sources, is still reluctant to endorse OBOR, particularly because the initiative includes the CPEC, which will link Kashgar in Xinjiang region and Gwadar port in Balochistan.

A senior official of Pakistan army recently said India should drop its opposition to CPEC and rather join the initiative. This prompted China to underline that it had an "open attitude” to India joining the CPEC.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has since 2013 been articulating the idea of a ‘21st century Maritime Silk Road’ to revive economic connectivity between Pacific and Indian Oceans and to link China’s coastline with Southeast Asia, the Gulf and the eastern coast of Africa. He has also been proposing a 'Silk Road Economic Belt’, reviving the ancient link between China and the Mediterranean through Central Asia.

The two projects are now together called OBOR or Belt-Road-Initiative (BRI) and the Chinese government has been pulling out all the stops over the past few years to elicit support from other countries and make it a success. It is billed as Xi’s dream project.

China’s plan to expand its presence further in the Indian Ocean region and the Central Asia, however, has caused discomfort in Delhi, which has already been wary of China’s "string of pearls” assets encircling India, according to experts on the subject.

Delhi views the OBOR initiative or BRI as the one designed by Beijing in pursuit of its own strategic objectives, but not as an inclusive one because the opinions of other "interested or affected” countries had not been taken into account.

Cheers

panduranghari · Post by **panduranghari** » 07 Jan 2017 16:34

China’s Rural Poor Bear the Brunt of the Nation’s Aging Crisis

The outlines of China’s demographic challenge are well-known: By 2050 almost 27 percent of the population will be 65 or older, up from around 10 percent in 2015, according to projections by the United Nations and the China Research Center on Aging. Less recognized is that the crisis will hit hardest in villages like Shangxule, which are suffering the twin effects of China’s one-child policy and decades of migration to the cities.

Already, some 80 million elderly, or 60 percent of all of the country’s senior citizens, live outside cities and far from the better health-care facilities. One-fifth of rural elderly have incomes that fall below the official poverty line, in many cases because the cost of treating an illness plunged the household into debt, according to Su Guoxia, a director in the State Council Leading Group of Poverty Alleviation and Development. And the suicide rate for older Chinese living in the countryside is more than three times that of urban peers, says Xiangming Fang, an economist at Georgia State University’s School of Public Health. Addressing members of the Communist Party’s Politburo in May of last year, President Xi Jinping noted “there is a quite big gap between reality and elderly people’s expectation of happy twilight years.”

Chinese farmers typically toil in the fields past 70, says John Giles, lead economist in the Development Research Group at the World Bank and an expert on aging in China. “This isn’t just puttering around in the garden,” he says. “This is arduous work. And if the elderly have children who have migrated, then they are more likely to be working longer and for more hours.”

The rural elderly have higher rates of physical disabilities than urbanites. Many have difficulty performing basic tasks such as dressing, eating, and bathing. They’re also increasingly afflicted by chronic ailments such as hypertension, heart disease, respiratory problems, and diabetes, in part because of high rates of smoking and drinking, along with, crucially, inadequate health care. Unlike people in much of the rest of the world, China’s citizens spend less on their health as they grow older, not more, says Albert Park, an economist at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. “So even though older people are getting less healthy in rural China, they are getting less health care,” Park says.

Mao’s legions of barefoot doctors—villagers with basic health training who charged minimal fees for service—brought about huge improvements in health care in the countryside. But many of those gains began dissipating with the onset of market reforms in the late 1970s. Today, China’s cities attract a disproportionate share of government health spending, along with the best doctors, so rural residents must put up with care that is expensive but shoddy. The average cost of a hospital visit is 50 percent of the annual income of a city dweller; for rural residents it’s 1.3 times annual income, according to Gerard La Forgia, the lead author of Healthy China: Deepening Health Reform in China, a joint report by the World Bank, the World Health Organization, China’s finance ministry, and other government agencies. Meanwhile, a 2014 survey by Stanford’s Rural Education Action Program found that patients at village health clinics received an accurate diagnosis only about one-quarter of the time. Overprescription of drugs is rampant. “Sometimes they give you the wrong medicine,” says Dong, the farmer from Shangxule. Last year she suffered an allergic reaction to a drug she says was incorrectly prescribed.

China’s policymakers are aware that the problems of the left-behind rural elderly could become a financial and social time bomb if ignored. Tax breaks are being used to encourage more hospitals to enter underserved rural areas, according to Mao Qunan, a spokesman for the National Health and Family Planning Commission. And while senior living facilities have only recently started cropping up in some cities (in Confucian China, traditionally children are supposed to take care of their elderly parents), authorities are encouraging them to expand into rural areas. A pilot rural pension program introduced in 2009 has been expanded and currently covers most people over 60 (previously, no one in the countryside had any retirement benefits).

Similarly, most village elderly now have access to a rural medical insurance scheme that was introduced more than a decade ago. Both programs provide limited protections, though; rural pensions amount to about 80 yuan a month (less than $12), far lower than average urban payments, while insurance copayments and out-of-pocket payments are high. “On paper it looks great—90-some percent of the rural population is covered, and that is probably true,” says La Forgia. “But what does it cover you for is the question.”

China’s restrictive residency permit system makes it difficult for the rural elderly to join their children in cities, and their insurance usually doesn’t cover treatment at urban hospitals. Some children are returning home to care for their parents, a move that could hurt economic growth as younger Chinese take less productive work or even leave the workforce, says the World Bank’s Giles. “Later I will have to return to my hometown because my parents are getting older,” says 25-year-old Zhang Chi, who works at a toy factory in Dongguan more than 825 miles from his hometown of Xi’an, in central China. “Working far away, you can only see them infrequently, which isn’t good.”

chola · Post by **chola** » 07 Jan 2017 17:52

The rural poor always gets pummeled anywhere in the third world but in lizardland -- the wealthiest of the third world shitholes by far -- it seems they are making an effort to annihilate this class.

Apart from the constant draining of its young to the cities (and there are many ghost cities to fill), they are deliberately hastening the death of these people and places.

It seems the chini strategy to breaking out of the middle income trap is to reduce its rural, poor and elderly populations by making them die.

Therefore you have 1) a lower population, therefore a higher per capita income and 2) a more urbanized population which by nature is wealthier.

If there is any nation that doesn't have to worry about getting old before its gets rich, it is the PRC. Getting old is only a problem for nations with a conscience like the US which is willing to risk bankruptcy with Medicare and Social Security to ensure a medium of comfort for the elderly and poor and the non/less productive. But this mortgages the future and loads debt onto the young and the productive.

Callous nations like China have no issues because they feel no compunction to spend treasure on making lives better for the elderly and the rural poor. In fact, they have an interest in making sure those that cannot provide for themselves die as soon as possible.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Economically it makes sense to cull out the nonproductive (why corporations engage in layoffs) and concentrate resources in the productive (the young, educated and urban) but humanity dictates otherwise.

An uniquely inhumane China can show us whether a completely callous approach will work and power China from the third world amidst an aging population.

rgosain · Post by **rgosain** » 07 Jan 2017 18:33

With CPEC likely to be the triumphal success of brotherhood between their Chinese overlords and the male youth of Pakistan, I can see a symbiotic relationship where Pakistan gastarbeiters are invited into the rural hinterland of the PRC to fill the roles left vacated by the pampered, educated urban middle class chinese. The result of this, will bring the IQ levels of both societies to a similar level.

Shankas · Post by **Shankas** » 07 Jan 2017 21:12

General Motors moving forward on sale of Indian car plant to China's SAIC

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/06/gm-india ... -sale.html

Nick_S · Post by **Nick_S** » 10 Jan 2017 10:52

Not sure where to put this...

Violent Protests Against Chinese 'Colony' In Sri Lanka Rage On

http://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard ... 4e86b129ed

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 10 Jan 2017 21:08

Correct thread.

Thanks. ramana

panduranghari · Post by **panduranghari** » 11 Jan 2017 00:16

‘Cheating, rapacious, venal, disease incubator': here’s what Trump’s new trade tsar thinks of China

The Chinese government is a despicable, parasitic, brutal, callous, amoral, ruthless and totally totalitarian imperialist power that reigns over the world’s leading cancer factory, its most prolific propaganda mill and the biggest police state and prison on the face of the earth.

That is the view of Peter Navarro, the man chosen by Donald Trump on Wednesday to lead a new presidential office for US trade and industrial policy, a move likely to add to Beijing’s anxieties over the billionaire’s plans for US-China relations.

Trump’s team described the 67-year-old academic, who is infamous in China watching circles for being a radical hawk, as “a brilliant policy mind and a tireless worker”. But Beijing is unlikely to second such emotions......

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 12 Jan 2017 18:30

China frets and fumes

12:54 AM;

G Parthasarathy

The latest Agni V test has not gone down well with the neighbour

China frets and fumes

Prickly pickle: China is unwilling to tolerate any challenge to its dominance.

WHEN India first tested its three-stage Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Agni V on April 20, 2012, China’s reaction was remarkably restrained. “China and India are both emerging powers. We are not rivals, but cooperative partners. We should cherish the hard-earned momentum of cooperation,” Liu Weimin, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, said, adding that “the two countries have a sound relationship. During the (recent) 4th BRICS meeting, the leadership of the two countries agreed on a consensus to further strengthen cooperation.” Even the normally aggressive Chinese government mouthpiece, The Global Times, was relatively restrained, asserting: “India should not overestimate its strength. Even if it has missiles that could reach most parts of China that does not mean it will gain anything from being arrogant during disputes with China. India should be clear that China’s nuclear power is stronger and more reliable. For the foreseeable future, India would stand no chance in an overall arms race with China.”

When India conducted the fourth and final pre-operational test of Agni V on December 26, 2016, China’s reaction the next day was belligerent and hostile. The Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Hu Chunying, referred to the UN Security Council Resolution 1172 of June 6, 1998, issued after nuclear tests by India and Pakistan. The resolution called on India and Pakistan to immediately stop their nuclear weapons development programmes; to refrain from weaponisation and the deployment of nuclear weapons; to cease the development of ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons and end any further production of fissile material for nuclear weapons. Hu also asked India to spell out its “intentions”. China seemed to have forgotten that the Security Council Resolution Hu referred to was a “Chapter 6” resolution, which was not binding on India. The reaction of The Global Times was vicious. Referring disparagingly to India’s economic potential and pointedly equating India with Pakistan, it observed: “Currently, there is a vast disparity in power between the two countries and India knows what it would mean, if it poses a nuclear threat to China.” Responding to China’s assertion that India’s missile programme adversely affected nuclear stability in South Asia, India’s spokesman Vikas Swarup noted: “India’s strategic autonomy and growing engagement contribute to strategic stability.”

There are a number of reasons for the change in the Chinese reactions to Agni V missile tests between 2012 and 2016. China militarily seized the Scarborough Shoal, located within the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Philippines, in 2012. It thereafter, contemptuously rejected a verdict of the UN tribunal which declared its maritime boundary claims along its so-called “Nine Dotted Line” as a violation of international law. The tribunal thereby held China’s territorial claims on Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei, as similarly being in violation of international law. China has, in the meantime, converted a large number of rocks across the South China Sea into islands, where it has based missiles, armed personnel and military aircraft, using its military might.

The Obama Administration took virtually no action in response to Chinese belligerence against the Philippines — a longtime military ally. Worse still, the US recently acquiesced in the seizure of one of its unmanned underwater vehicles close to the Philippines. Chinese belligerence is paying off. President Duterte of the Philippines has quietly acquiesced to Beijing’s territorial demands. ASEAN countries like Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand and Cambodia are following suit. Myanmar is being pressured by China, by permitting Chinese territory to be used by armed ethnic groups from Myanmar’s bordering Shan and Kachin states.

It is clear that a belligerent China is no longer prepared to tolerate any challenges to its dominance and hegemony across Asia. Agni IV, currently operational, with a range of 4,000 km, can hit targets in southern China, while Agni V, with a range of 5,500-8000 km, can hit even at the farthest points in China. The submarine-launched Sagarika missile, currently operational, has a range of 750 km. Its variants — under development — can hit across China from the Bay of Bengal. China, in turn, has transferred the designs and knowhow of the Shaheen range of missiles to Pakistan. These missiles can hit targets across India. Moreover, Karachi and Gwadar will be used, not only to base the eight submarines China is supplying to Pakistan, but also serve as bases for Chinese nuclear and conventional submarines that are now venturing increasingly into the Indian Ocean. The range of missiles being developed by India clearly signals to China that it will find any effort to use Pakistan as a nuclear proxy against India very costly and perhaps unaffordable. Agni V is virtually invulnerable as it is mobile and housed in canisters.

New Delhi needs to be far more active in insisting that a comprehensive nuclear dialogue with China is essential for strategic stability across Asia. China is loathe to enter into such a dialogue as it evidently wishes to not formally accord recognition to India’s nuclear weapons status, even as it peddles nuclear weapons and ballistic missile designs and materials to Pakistan, while helping Pakistan to develop both uranium and plutonium-based nuclear weapons. These transfers to Pakistan are in total disregard of China’s responsibilities under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. India has been far too defensive and avoided exposing the Sino-Pakistan nuclear/missile nexus in important world capitals, notably Washington, London, Paris, Moscow and Tokyo. A far more determined effort on this score would be necessary once the Trump Administration assumes office and settles down to looking at the world.

Within Asia, Chinese hubris and arrogance would need far closer consultations and dialogue with countries like Japan, Vietnam and Indonesia. There appears to be a sentiment growing slowly in Tokyo that in the face of Chinese territorial and geopolitical ambitions, Japan should review its nuclear policies. The incoming Trump Administration has also indicated that allies like Japan need to do more to defend themselves, rather than depend excessively on the US. A nuclear-armed Japan can certainly play a key role in moderating Chinese behaviour and hubris. This is an issue that needs to be looked at carefully. All this has to be combined with a vigorous dialogue with China, which includes maintenance of peace and tranquility along our borders, expanding equitable trade and economic ties and promoting peace and stability across the entire Indo-Pacific Region

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 12 Jan 2017 19:20

[Deleted]

Philip, Do not post such stuff again. No need for such advice. Its lowers our discourse.
ramana

sanjaykumar · Post by **sanjaykumar** » 13 Jan 2017 07:03

Philip, I am amazed that someone else is thinking along these lines. It may also be suggested to other meat loving societies as a method of lessening the burden on Mother Earth.

Paul · Post by **Paul** » 13 Jan 2017 16:35

Singapore military vehicle seizure
Why Singapore should not be surprised that relations with China have changed

William Zheng says the city state’s recent troubles with Beijing – over issues including the South China Sea and Taiwan – reflect the story of a world power coming into its own
PUBLISHED : Friday, 13 January, 2017, 4:20pm

[China has become a real world power – politically, economically and militarily. Illustration: Craig Stephens]
Sino-Singaporean relations have been on a sharp downward trend since Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ( 習近平 ) visit to the city state in 2015. The tiny republic’s stand on the South China Sea dispute and its close relationship with the West, in particular the United States, have caused China to single it out for some stern criticism. One Chinese general called for sanctions on Singapore and the Global Times ranted that Beijing should take tough action on Singapore “when it crosses the line”.

Beijing’s actions have been akin to those of a great Go (weiqi) master orchestrating a comprehensive campaign on all fronts. The foreign ministry has not only issued typically straightforward rebuttals of Singapore’s statements, it also carried out a quick strike in Hong Kong in November, seizing nine Terrex infantry fighting vehicles belonging to the Singapore Armed Forces.
Watch: Singapore’s military vehicles seized in Hong Kong
How Singapore’s military vehicles became Beijing’s diplomatic weapon

It did not end there. There was no meeting last year of the Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation, the highest-level institutional mechanism of Sino-Singaporean cooperation. The initiative was launched in 2003 by then Chinese premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) and Singapore’s prime minister, Goh Chok Tong. Currently, it is co-chaired by Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean and Chinese Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli (張高麗). Zhang is a member of the Politburo Standing Committee.

This paper has reported that Singapore casinos are also at risk of a Beijing crackdown over capital flight through potential misuse of the UnionPay network.
Many Singaporeans were shocked and concerned, especially those working and investing in China. Some have complained that they had been pressed to take a stand on the South China Sea dispute on various occasions. They said they felt bullied and wonder why, when Singapore’s troops have been in Taiwan for years with no untoward consequences, things have changed.
Hong Kong seizure of armoured vehicles has taught us a lesson, Singapore’s defence chief says

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lu Kang (陸慷) gave a clue in his press briefing, reminding all countries to respect the “one China” principle and asking the “relevant party” (implying Singapore) to respect the laws of Hong Kong. His words suggest that the decision of impounding Singapore’s military vehicles has something to do with Taiwan, given that the equipment was on its way back to Singapore after military exercises on the island.

It is worth remembering that Singapore and Taiwan’s military cooperation was initiated by Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s founding father, and Chiang Ching-kuo, then the Kuomintang leader. The Chinese mainland was still undeveloped at the time, and had yet to start its “open door” policy and the great reforms that resulted in 30 years of spectacular economic growth. But times have changed.

Taiwan is again ruled by the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party. Its president, Tsai Ing-wen, failed to mention the “1992 consensus” – a reference to the “one China” principle – by name in her inauguration speech, which Beijing called an “incomplete answer”.
Is Taiwan the trump card in Sino-US relations?

[China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier conducts a drill in an area of the South China Sea in this undated photo taken in December. On Wednesday, Taiwan scrambled jets and navy ships as a group of Chinese warships, led by its sole aircraft carrier, sailed through the Taiwan Strait. Photo: Reuters]
Rising uncertainty as Taipei sends ships, jets after Beijing’s carrier enters Taiwan Strait

Beijing is becoming increasingly anxious as US-Taiwan relations begin to warm up following Donald Trump’s US presidential election victory. Tsai’s recent transit stop in Houston, and her meeting with US Senator Ted Cruz, on her way to Central America, provoked China’s ire, coming after her congratulatory phone call to President-elect Trump rocked decades of US policy towards China.

Given this backdrop, it is not surprising that China is preparing to step up the pressure on Taiwan, both diplomatically and militarily. Its aircraft carrier is patrolling near the island and it has just won over Taiwan’s diplomatic ally Sao Tome and Principe, which is just the beginning of this effort. Seizing Singapore’s military equipment falls well into the plan, sending a clear signal to Taiwan’s friends to sever their military links, or risk serious consequences.

Besides that, Beijing also hopes to teach a lesson to Singapore, which was seen as backing the international tribunal’s ruling on the South China Sea last year. A less vocal Singapore would mean China could better handle the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in future over any South China Sea talks.

[A visitor to Hong Kong’s Victoria Peak takes a photograph. Hong Kong’s unique status in China is notable. Its role as a special administrative region allows Beijing to use it strategically as a buffer. Photo: Reuters]

The incident also shines a light on Hong Kong’s unique status in China. Its role as a special administrative region allows Beijing to use it strategically as a buffer, to avoid direct confrontation with Singapore. With the Hong Kong government handling, or rather fronting this case, any future meetings between Vice-Premier Zhang and Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Teo could be conducted in a more amicable atmosphere. That is thoughtful.

China has become a real world power – politically, economically and militarily. It has made it very clear that the South China Sea and Taiwan are core interests, and there is no room for manoeuvre. Interestingly, Xi has consolidated enough power to become China’s “core leader”. Times have changed. Clearly, it’s necessary to think twice before touching on such sensitive core interests.

William Zheng is a veteran journalist who has served and led major Singapore and Hong Kong media organisations in his 20-year career

http://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opi ... china-have

+++++++++++++++

Someone was asking what the expectations of Singaporeans of India are.

Peregrine · Post by **Peregrine** » 13 Jan 2017 20:56

China posts worst export fall since 2009 as fears of US trade war loom

BEIJING: China's massive export engine sputtered for the second year in a row in 2016, with shipments falling in the face of persistently weak global demand and officials voicing fears of a trade war with the United States that is clouding the outlook for 2017.

In one week, China's leaders will see if President-elect Donald Trump makes good on a campaign pledge to brand Beijing a currency manipulator on his first day in office, and starts to follow up on a threat to slap high tariffs on Chinese goods.

Even if the Trump administration takes no concrete action immediately, analysts say the spectre of deteriorating US-China trade and political ties is likely to weigh on the confidence of exporters and investors worldwide.

The world's largest trading nation posted gloomy data on Friday, with 2016 exports falling 7.7 percent and imports down 5.5 percent. The export drop was the second annual decline in a row and the worst since the depths of the global crisis in 2009.

It will be tough for foreign trade to improve this year, especially if the inauguration of Trump and other major political changes limit the growth of China's exports due to greater protectionist measures, the country's customs agency said on Friday.

"The trend of anti-globalization is becoming increasingly evident, and China is the biggest victim of this trend," customs spokesman Huang Songping told reporters.

"We will pay close attention to foreign trade policy after Trump is inaugurated president," Huang said. Trump will be sworn in on Jan. 20.

China's trade surplus with the United States was $366 billion in 2015, according to US customs data, which Trump could seize on in a bid to bring Beijing to the negotiating table to press for concessions, economists at Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in a recent research note.

A sustained trade surplus of more than $20 billion against the United States is one of three criteria used by the US Treasury to designate another country as a currency manipulator.

China is likely to point out that its own data showed the surplus fell to $250.79 billion in 2016 from $260.91 billion in 2015, but that may get short shrift in Washington.

"Our worry is that Trump's stance towards China's trade could bring about long-term structural weakness in China's exports," economists at ANZ said in a note.

"Trump's trade policy will likely motivate US businesses to move their manufacturing facilities away from China, although the latter's efforts in promoting high-end manufacturing may offset part of the loss."

On Wednesday, China may have set off a warning shot to the Trump administration that it is prepared to push back. Beijing announced even higher anti-dumping duties on imports of certain animal feed from the United States than it proposed last year.

"Instead of caving in and trying to prepare voluntary export restraints like Japan did with their auto exports back in the 1980s, we believe China would start by strongly protesting against the labelling with the IMF, but not to initiate more aggressive retaliation ... immediately," the BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research report said.

"That said, even a 'war of words' could weaken investor confidence not only in the US and China, but globally."
China's december exports fall

China's December exports fell by a more-than-expected 6.1 percent on-year, while imports beat forecasts slightly, growing 3.1 percent on its strong demand for commodities from coal to iron ore which has helped buoy global resources prices.

An unexpected 0.1 percent rise in shipments in November, while scant, had raised hopes that sluggish global demand for Chinese goods was turning around.

China reported a trade surplus of $40.82 billion for December, versus November's $44.61 billion.

While the export picture has been grim all year, with shipments rising in only two months out of 12, import trends have been more encouraging of late, pointing to a pick-up in domestic demand as companies brought in more raw materials from iron ore to copper to help feed a construction boom.

Indeed, China imported record amounts of crude oil, iron ore, copper and soybeans in 2016, plus large volumes of coal used for heating and in steelmaking.

"Trade protectionism is on the rise but China is relying more on domestic demand," said Wen Bin, an economist at Minsheng Bank in Beijing.

Prolonged weakness in exports has forced China's government to rely on higher spending and massive lending to boost the economy, at the risk of adding to a huge pile of debt which some analysts warn is nearing danger levels.

But signs are growing that the red-hot property market may have peaked, meaning China may have less appetite this year for imports of raw materials.

"It is hard to see what could drive a more substantial recovery in Chinese trade," Julian Evans-Pritchard, China Economist at Capital Economics, wrote in a note.

"Further upside to economic activity, both in China and abroad, is probably now limited given declines in trend growth. Instead, the risks to trade lie to the downside...," he said, saying the chance of a damaging China-US trade spat has risen since Trump's appointment of hardliners to lead trade policy.

A decline in China's trade surplus in 2016, to just under $510 billion from $594 billion in 2015, may also reduce authorities' ability to offset capital outflow pressures, which have helped drive its yuan currency to more than eight-year lows, ANZ economists said.
Cheers

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 18 Jan 2017 12:29

Chairman Mao's waxworks mummy will start melting!

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/ ... giant-pile

Chinese discard hundreds of cycles-for-hire in giant piles
It was hoped bike-hire schemes would cut pollution and congestion but it seems some users just want to ride and dump
The huge pile of more than 500 for-hire bikes found dumped in Shenzhen.

Staff and agencies
Tuesday 17 January 2017
It has been billed as a hi-tech bike-sharing boom that entrepreneurs hope will make them rich while simultaneously transforming China’s traffic-clogged cities.
But, occasionally, dreams can turn sour.
In the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, more than 500 bicycles for hire have been found dumped in huge piles on the streets, according to reports.
Pictures showed jumbled stacks of vehicles nearly three metres high, with handlebars, baskets and other parts scattered on the ground.
Bike-sharing revolution aims to put China back on two wheels

City streets around the country have seen an explosion of the colourful bikes that users can rent on demand with a smartphone app and then park wherever they choose.

The sharing economy is taking off in China, where ride-sharing and Airbnb are increasingly commonplace.
The dumped bikes in Shenzhen. Photograph: STR/AFP/Getty Images
From Shanghai to Sichuan province, bike-sharing schemes are being rolled out in an effort to slash congestion and air pollution by putting a country once known as the “Kingdom of Bicycles” back on two wheels.

Companies such as Ofo and Mobike, with their rival fleets of bumblebee yellow and fluorescent orange bikes, have been locked in a cut-throat battle for customers.

But problems have arisen when clients have abandoned their cycles.

“Some people these days just have really bad character,” a man named He, who lives near where the stacks appeared, told the Southern Metropolis Daily.

“When they’re done using [the bike] they just throw it away somewhere, because they’ve already paid.”

In the past few days he witnessed people demolishing the bikes before discarding them on the side of the road, he said.

Residents told the paper that bikes had been piling up over the past week, either parked haphazardly by careless users or stacked by local security guards trying to clear narrow residential alleys and footpaths.

The different colours represent rival bike-hire firms.

The different colours represent rival bike-hire firms. Photograph: Imaginechina/Rex/Shutterstock
Zhuang Chuangyu, a representative at Shenzhen’s municipal people’s congress, said the city needed to step up regulation of the bike-sharing industry in order to improve traffic conditions and safety standards, especially since schoolchildren often used the bikes.

In the years following Mao Zedong’s 1949 communist takeover, bikes ruled supreme in China and the Flying Pigeon – the eastern equivalent of the Raleigh Roadster – became one of the country’s most recognisable symbols.

But two-wheeled travel began to go out of fashion as China became more open to the world, ushering in decades of economic growth and a high demand for cars.

In 1980, almost 63% of commuters cycled to work, the Beijing Morning Post reported in 2015, citing government data. But by 2000 that number had plummeted to 38% and today it stands at less than 12%.

Car use, meanwhile, has rocketed. In 2010 China overtook the US to become the world’s largest car market, with 13.5m vehicles sold in just 12 months.

Agence France-Presse contributed to this report

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 19 Jan 2017 14:06

Chinese province admits to faking economic data - AFP

A Chinese official has admitted his province falsified economic data for years, state media said Wednesday, vindicating long-held suspicions that China has been cooking the books. The announcement by the governor of the industrial province of Liaoning comes as the world’s second-largest economy prepares to release 2016 data that is tipped to show the slowest growth in more than a quarter of a century. Liaoning’s governor Chen Qiufa admitted that from 2011 to 2014, economic data from the province’s cities and counties had been plagued with false statistics, Xinhua news agency reported. — AFP

ricky_v · Post by **ricky_v** » 19 Jan 2017 19:44

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/18/opin ... .html?_r=0

BEIJING — When Zhang Xiaomo worked on a farm in Manchuria in the early 1970s, she shuddered at the screeching noise of trucks pulling over on the icy roads. Her mind would dart back to the summer of 1966, when gangs of men would arrive most nights in large trucks, banging on the door and ransacking the courtyard house she lived in by herself. It was the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, and her mother, hunted for her contact with the Japanese during World War II, had gone into hiding.
“They kept coming day after day,” she recalled in her Beijing apartment recently. “They were a bunch of grown-up men, and I was 13 years old, all by myself. I felt like I couldn’t take it anymore.” The experience still haunts her.

Half a century has passed since Mao Zedong plunged China into the “10 years of chaos,” as the Cultural Revolution is often called here, wrecking the Communist Party apparatus and upending the lives of ordinary people like Ms. Zhang. Mao’s obsession with ridding the country of enemies brought public humiliation, political exile and starvation upon countless individuals. Perhaps more than a million lost their lives.

But the party, whose legitimacy and image remain inextricably tied to Mao, has refused to fully reckon with his historical sins. And with public discussion of the Cultural Revolution’s legacy still largely forbidden, it remains difficult to gauge one of the most serious consequences of the tumultuous period: its impact on the Chinese soul.

“The essence of the Cultural Revolution is not just that Mao unleashed it and caused the chaos,” the Harvard China historian Roderick MacFarquhar told me. It “is that the Chinese, without direct orders, were so cruel to each other.”

Born in 1988, more than a decade after the end of the Cultural Revolution, I grew up hearing my relatives’ occasional reminiscences of daily life in the era: the food coupons, the Mao badges, the exchange of greetings with quotations from the ubiquitous “Little Red Book.” In one of my earliest recollections, my grandmother showed me a pile of old sweaters, explaining with a proud smile that she knitted them as a distraction from the “struggle sessions” taking place on the stage in her work unit’s auditorium in the late 1960s.
Yet the emotional scar has never faded away. In late 2015, when a singer stepped onto a neon-lit stage in Shanghai to perform a song about the tribulations of his family of six during the Cultural Revolution, the outpouring of public emotion surprised many people. One web commenter, quoting a line from the song, reflected: “ ‘After the Cultural Revolution, there were five of us left.’ That is not just the story of his family, but that of many others.”

The psychic damage of the Cultural Revolution has been the subject of only a few small-scale studies. An interview project carried out by Chinese researchers in collaboration with German psychotherapists in the early 2000s showed that people with Cultural Revolution-related trauma exhibited symptoms typical of post-traumatic stress disorder: Many reported intense anxiety, depression and frequent flashbacks of traumatic experiences; some showed emotional numbness and avoidance behaviors.

Cultural Revolution trauma differs from that related to other horrific events, like the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide, studies have noted, in part because in China, people were persecuted not for “unalterable” characteristics such as ethnicity and race, but for having the wrong frame of mind. Constant scrutiny of one’s own thinking and actions for signs of political deviance became a necessity for survival that sometimes carried unbearable weight.

Recalling her high school years in the early 1970s, my mother describes a nagging fear of “letting an ‘unrevolutionary’ word slip in public.” It did not dissipate until more than a decade after Mao’s death in 1976.

Such vigilance offered no guarantee against becoming a victim. A 2007 survey of 108 Cultural Revolution participants showed that neither joining the Red Guards nor believing in Maoism protected someone from suffering long-term trauma.

Fickle political winds turned attackers into targets overnight, causing people to label one another class enemies less out of ideological conviction than out of revenge or pressure to toe the right line. The blurry distinction between perpetrators and victims makes collective healing by confronting the past a thorny project.

Wu Di, a co-founder of Remembrance, a journal of history and culture, invited members of opposing factions on a university campus during the period, now in their twilight years, to share their accounts. But his attempt at bringing reconciliation brought back unsettled scores. Each side, rejecting the story of the other, claimed victimhood from the events.
They’ve never sat down and talked about it,” Mr. Wu told me last year. “They still can’t.”

More personal reasons may also shape people’s response to mental trauma.

Mental illness remains deeply stigmatized in China. Private despair was incompatible with the collectivist spirit and the bright Communist facade under Mao. Many traumatized people, as a result, would describe their emotional pain as physical ailments.

Xu Xiaodi, a retired teacher who saw her relatives beaten to death during the Cultural Revolution, is more forthright than most about the mental toll. She said she had experienced bouts of bad temper and powerful mood swings in its aftermath. She averts her eyes from elderly women performing boisterous dances on public squares — a popular pastime here — because they prompt her memories of struggle sessions staged by Red Guards.

But people “tell me just to move on,” she said to me. “They say, because the whole generation suffered in those years, even the national leaders.”

Rejecting such arguments, many people like Ms. Xu have refused to let go of the past by choosing to bear its psychic impact. But a growing body of research suggests that the past can have a way of plaguing the offspring of those who directly experienced it through the transgenerational transmission of trauma. The idea that life experiences could cause inheritable genetic changes has been identified among children of Holocaust survivors, who have been shown to have an increased likelihood of stress-related illnesses.

The possibility of epigenetic inheritance has been raised by Chinese academics regarding the Cultural Revolution, but to research the topic would most certainly invite state punishment.

Ms. Zhang, who spoke of the midnight house raids, mentioned another event that weighed on her. During the “rustication movement” in late 1960s, when millions of youths left the cities to work in rural areas under Mao’s command, she reported to her teacher that a classmate had hidden her age to evade the order. The classmate, Ms. Zhang said to me, had once insulted her family at a struggle session. She was promptly sent to northwestern China, where she labored for years.

After the Cultural Revolution ended, Ms. Zhang looked for her, and found her working as an usher in a small movie theater in her hometown. Ms. Zhang admitted to the classmate what she had done and apologized. “She was stunned for a while.” Now they both live in Beijing, Ms. Zhang told me. “We see each other every now and then.”

Peregrine · Post by **Peregrine** » 19 Jan 2017 20:46

Xi calls for world without nuclear weapons

GENEVA: Chinese President Xi Jinping called for a world without nuclear weapons at the UN on Wednesday and urged a multilateral system based on equality among nations large and small.

His speech at the United Nations in Geneva came at the end of a diplomatic tour that included a landmark address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, just days before Donald Trump is sworn in as the 45th president of the United States.

Some experts have seen Xi’s Swiss tour as a bid to capture the mantle of global leadership at a time when Washington is clouded by uncertainty with an unpredictable political novice about to take charge.

“Nuclear weapons should be completely prohibited and destroyed over time to make the world free of nuclear weapons,” Xi said, according to an official translation. China has been a nuclear power since 1964.

In an address that stretched beyond 45 minutes, Xi also sought to make the case for a global governance system that strives for a level playing field among countries where interventionist tendencies are resisted.

“We should reject dominance by just one or several countries”, Xi said, adding that “major powers should respect each other’s core interests.”

“Big countries should treat smaller countries as equals instead of acting as a hegemon, imposing their will on others,” he further said, speaking alongside the new UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

“Sovereign equality is the most important rule”, Xi continued.

He also praised UN organisations governed by the principle of one nation, one vote.

China has reacted harshly against attempts to influence what it considers its internal domestic affairs, from concerns over human rights issues in Tibet to a democracy push in Hong Kong.

Beijing has also used its veto on the UN Security Council to block intervention in some global hotspots, including notably in Syria. In his disarmament call and plea for sovereign equality Xi offered China as a nation “committed to building a world of lasting peace.”

In Davos, Xi backed unity in the face of mounting global challenges such as resistance to globalised trade. Some analysts saw that as a bid to contrast Trump, whose often bombastic rhetoric has at times defined international relationships in terms of winners and losers. While he made no mention of the incoming Republican administration, Xi’s message on nuclear weapons stood apart from Trump’s at times contradictory remarks on American nuclear power.

In a tweet last month, Trump said “the United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes”.

But this week, the real-estate mogul and former reality TV star Trump struck a different note, saying “nuclear weapons should be way down and reduced very substantially”. He also suggested he would be open to a disarmament deal with Russia in exchange for easing sanctions imposed by Washington against Moscow.

Cheers

ranjan.rao · Post by **ranjan.rao** » 19 Jan 2017 20:56

^^prostitute calling for celibacy!

kit · Post by **kit** » 19 Jan 2017 21:47

Peregrine wrote:Xi calls for world without nuclear weapons

GENEVA: Chinese President Xi Jinping called for a world without nuclear weapons at the UN on Wednesday and urged a multilateral system based on equality among nations large and small.

His speech at the United Nations in Geneva came at the end of a diplomatic tour that included a landmark address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, just days before Donald Trump is sworn in as the 45th president of the United States.

Some experts have seen Xi’s Swiss tour as a bid to capture the mantle of global leadership at a time when Washington is clouded by uncertainty with an unpredictable political novice about to take charge.

“Nuclear weapons should be completely prohibited and destroyed over time to make the world free of nuclear weapons,” Xi said, according to an official translation. China has been a nuclear power since 1964.

In an address that stretched beyond 45 minutes, Xi also sought to make the case for a global governance system that strives for a level playing field among countries where interventionist tendencies are resisted.

“We should reject dominance by just one or several countries”, Xi said, adding that “major powers should respect each other’s core interests.”

“Big countries should treat smaller countries as equals instead of acting as a hegemon, imposing their will on others,” he further said, speaking alongside the new UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

“Sovereign equality is the most important rule”, Xi continued.

He also praised UN organisations governed by the principle of one nation, one vote.

China has reacted harshly against attempts to influence what it considers its internal domestic affairs, from concerns over human rights issues in Tibet to a democracy push in Hong Kong.

Beijing has also used its veto on the UN Security Council to block intervention in some global hotspots, including notably in Syria. In his disarmament call and plea for sovereign equality Xi offered China as a nation “committed to building a world of lasting peace.”

In Davos, Xi backed unity in the face of mounting global challenges such as resistance to globalised trade. Some analysts saw that as a bid to contrast Trump, whose often bombastic rhetoric has at times defined international relationships in terms of winners and losers. While he made no mention of the incoming Republican administration, Xi’s message on nuclear weapons stood apart from Trump’s at times contradictory remarks on American nuclear power.

In a tweet last month, Trump said “the United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes”.

But this week, the real-estate mogul and former reality TV star Trump struck a different note, saying “nuclear weapons should be way down and reduced very substantially”. He also suggested he would be open to a disarmament deal with Russia in exchange for easing sanctions imposed by Washington against Moscow.

Cheers

the Agni test seems to have shaken and stirred them of their own vulnerability ..so the pious preaching .. now wonder what a 7000 km ballistic (and) hypersonic MIRVed weapons deployment will do

ranjan.rao · Post by **ranjan.rao** » 19 Jan 2017 22:14

or could be the (f)art of war: appear weak when strong or something like that

anupmisra · Post by **anupmisra** » 19 Jan 2017 22:48

Peregrine wrote:Xi calls for world without nuclear weapons

This is not going to go down too well for their client state and islami atami taakat, al bakistan.

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 19 Jan 2017 23:57

Peregrine wrote:Xi calls for world without nuclear weapons

This is just another double speak

In the internet there are many comments by Chini and TSP saying that they will create a new world

The Chini says to Pak that they will create a new world order
It is laughable that they are unable to take care of thier own country and backyard and want to give a direction to the world and take up leadership role

This nuclear free world is on this vision when China has been the most proliferating country

The globalization role and vision in the Davos summit is also on the same lines

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 20 Jan 2017 00:57

Xi Jinping thinks Trump's America will be isolationist and the world is scared of the dragon image of China. So he is making soothing noises to bolster China image. This psy-ops is being swallowed by some willful idiots in India.

panduranghari · Post by **panduranghari** » 21 Jan 2017 05:00

The US-China tango have but 4 choices;
1. Carry on Growing - Just like the carry on movie series it eventually runs out of time or resources as unlimited growth on a planet with finite resources is impossible.
2. Trudge along - For this the world has to remain exactly as it was when China was allowed to enter WTO by US. Thats not possible.
3. Descent - A mutually managed descent where both stay on top was the hope that Hillary would have given US-China. Trump wont play this game.
4. Collapse - The only viable option. Besides things have gone downhill for so long, that the situation cant be salvaged.

They cant stop the run away train. Its really that simple. Dragon will be shown to be nothing more than a lizard. While the eagle is already old.

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 21 Jan 2017 11:40

panduranghari wrote:The US-China tango have but 4 choices;
1. Carry on Growing - Just like the carry on movie series it eventually runs out of time or resources as unlimited growth on a planet with finite resources is impossible.
2. Trudge along - For this the world has to remain exactly as it was when China was allowed to enter WTO by US. Thats not possible.
3. Descent - A mutually managed descent where both stay on top was the hope that Hillary would have given US-China. Trump wont play this game.
4. Collapse - The only viable option. Besides things have gone downhill for so long, that the situation cant be salvaged.

They cant stop the run away train. Its really that simple. Dragon will be shown to be nothing more than a lizard. While the eagle is already old.

There is a lot of coordination between these countries in asia

They will never be at 3 or 4.
They would maintain 2 since the Chinese currency and Chinese trade will be used to transform China politically since China wants to be in the high table.

Austin · Post by **Austin** » 22 Jan 2017 12:56

China is funding many projects in Africa

All aboard! The Chinese-funded railways linking East Africa

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/21/afric ... index.html

Austin · Post by **Austin** » 22 Jan 2017 13:01

panduranghari wrote:The US-China tango have but 4 choices;
1. Carry on Growing - Just like the carry on movie series it eventually runs out of time or resources as unlimited growth on a planet with finite resources is impossible.
2. Trudge along - For this the world has to remain exactly as it was when China was allowed to enter WTO by US. Thats not possible.
3. Descent - A mutually managed descent where both stay on top was the hope that Hillary would have given US-China. Trump wont play this game.
4. Collapse - The only viable option. Besides things have gone downhill for so long, that the situation cant be salvaged.

They cant stop the run away train. Its really that simple. Dragon will be shown to be nothing more than a lizard. While the eagle is already old.

Jim Rickards is predicting a massive currency war between China and US as DT prepares to label China as Currency Manipulator

China will react with Nuke Option of Massive devaluation of Yuan ......Jim Predicting China will go broke

Check the video interview https://pro.agorafinancial.com/CWA_shoc ... 17/?h=true

ranjan.rao · Post by **ranjan.rao** » 22 Jan 2017 19:32

Austin wrote:China is funding many projects in Africa

All aboard! The Chinese-funded railways linking East Africa

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/21/afric ... index.html

these will be the target of sabotage by CIA in future

Austin · Post by **Austin** » 22 Jan 2017 19:35

ranjan.rao wrote:
Austin wrote:China is funding many projects in Africa

All aboard! The Chinese-funded railways linking East Africa

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/21/afric ... index.html
these will be the target of sabotage by CIA in future

I doubt ,The chinese and African country intel will retaliate in kind

ranjan.rao · Post by **ranjan.rao** » 22 Jan 2017 20:05

retailiate on what to whom? what investments do they have there?

NRao · Post by **NRao** » 23 Jan 2017 00:00

Peregrine wrote:Xi calls for world without nuclear weapons

1) China says and Pakistan reports. A new dimension to a trusted relationship
2) Xi just woke up from deep sleep
3) Good. Now we have a contrast with a duck. Something to talk about other than trade

4) trying to steal the lime light from Modi

g.sarkar · Post by **g.sarkar** » 23 Jan 2017 20:55

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/new ... 738070.cms
Diplomat says China would assume world leadership if needed
By Reuters | Updated: Jan 23, 2017, 07.40 PM IST
BEIJING: China does not want world leadership but could be forced to assume that role if others step back from that position, a senior Chinese diplomat said on Monday, after US President Donald Trump pledged to put "America first" in his first speech.
Zhang Jun, director general of the Chinese Foreign Ministry's international economics department, made the comments during a briefing with foreign journalists to discuss President Xi Jinping's visit to Switzerland last week.
...
Topping the bill at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Xi portrayed China as the leader of a globalised world where only international cooperation could solve the big problems.
Speaking days before Trump assumed the presidency, Xi also urged countries to resist isolationism, signalling Beijing's desire to play a bigger role on the global stage.
Elaborating on that theme, Zhang said China had no intention of seeking global leadership.
"If anyone were to say China is playing a leadership role in the world I would say it's not China rushing to the front but rather the front runners have stepped back leaving the place to China," Zhang said.
....

Gautam

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 24 Jan 2017 10:31

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/ ... -china-sea

Trump White House warns against Beijing 'takeover' of South China Sea
Press secretary Sean Spicer hints at tougher US line on international waterway, after Rex Tillerson likens China’s island-building to ‘Russia’s taking of Crimea’

Tom Phillips in Beijing
Tuesday 24 January 2017
The United States will take steps to foil Chinese efforts to “take over” the South China Sea, the White House has indicated, amid growing hints that Donald Trump’s administration intends to challenge Beijing over the strategic waterway.
Images show 'significant' Chinese weapons systems in South China Sea

Speaking at a press briefing on Monday White House press secretary Sean Spicer vowed the US would “make sure that we protect our interests” in the resource-rich trade route, through which some $4.5tn (£3.4tn) in trade passes each year.

His comments come less than a fortnight after Rex Tillerson, Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, set the stage for a potentially explosive clash with Beijing by likening its artificial island building campaign in the South China Sea to “Russia’s taking of Crimea”.

Tillerson told his confirmation hearing the White House needed to send China a “clear signal” that such activities had to stop and that its access to such territories was “not going to be allowed”.

“They are taking territory or control or declaring control of territories that are not rightfully China’s,” Tillerson said.
Chinese media responded by warning that any attempt to prevent China accessing its interests in the region risked sparking a “large-scale war”.

At his first question and answer session with the press on Monday Spicer again hinted Trump’s administration would take a harder line on the South China Sea.

“It’s a question of if those islands are in fact in international waters and not part of China proper, then yeah, we’re going to make sure that we defend international territories from being taken over by one country,” he told reporters.

Spicer declined to explain how such steps might be enforced. “I think, as we develop further, we’ll have more information on it,” he said.

However, scholars who have been advising Trump’s team on China policy back a more muscular military approach, primarily through a dramatically strengthened navy in the region.

“We’ve talked a big game on security but haven’t really followed it up all that well with the military muscle that was needed,” Daniel Blumenthal, the director of Asian Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington-based thinktank, told the Guardian.

Blumenthal said a “strong, persistent US naval presence” was now required to back up a foreign policy “that at its bottom line says that China’s not going to control the South China Sea … But you can’t do that without military resources.”

China claims sovereignty over nearly the entire South China Sea and in recent years has stepped up a campaign to cement its control over a region where Brunei, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims.

It has done so partly by transforming a series of remote coral reefs into what experts say are effectively military outposts designed to help enforce its territorial claims.

Last month a US thinktank said “significant” weapons systems, including anti-aircraft and anti-missile system, had been deployed on China’s artificial islands. Beijing claims it has no intention of militarising them.

China attacks international court after South China Sea ruling

Blumenthal said he believed there was now “broad bipartisan support for trying to stem this expansionism, which is leading to effective Chinese control over the South China Sea”.

In July 2016, a judgment by an international tribunal in The Hague came down overwhelmingly in favour of claims by the Philippines to rocky outcrops in the South China Sea, a verdict disputed by Beijing.

“If indeed [the artificial islands] are not sovereign territory – and we don’t recognise them as so, and the region doesn’t recognise them as so, and the Hague didn’t recognise them as so – then there are all sorts of activities, up and down an escalation ladder, that the United States could take should we want to in terms of Chinese encroachment,” Blumenthal said.

Critics believe such moves would spark a furious reaction from Beijing and throw US-China ties into turmoil.

“This administration is shaping up to be the most hawkish administration against China in living memory … and this is not a recipe for great power stability, it is a recipe for great power friction,” said Ashley Townshend, a South China Sea expert from the University of Sydney’s United States studies centre.

Rex Tillerson: I would block China’s access to islands in South China Sea
“A blockade [of China’s artificial islands] would be incredibly provocative and would almost certainly spark a US-China confrontation on the water … If the US is going to blockade China’s access to territories which it – rightly or wrongly – believes are its, then we are in for a confrontation.”

More likely, Townshend said, was that Trump would order the stepping-up of freedom of navigation and overflight operations, which have come increasingly close to features in the South China Sea claimed by China.

Despite fears about the direction US policy towards China may take under the new president, Blumenthal argued a more robust stance from Washington could in fact improve ties.

“My own view and my own experience in government is that when you are very clear with China about what your national interests are and what you are going to do in the region, they become very clear as well and say, ‘You know what, we’re going to stop pushing’ and the relationship in certain areas can improve.

“I think the most dangerous scenario was the one we were heading towards: a lot of tough talk on the South China Sea, but China continuing to encroach and the United States not really putting a lot of muscle behind the statements it was making.”

panduranghari · Post by **panduranghari** » 24 Jan 2017 14:32

https://www.project-syndicate.org/comme ... 1#comments

NEW DELHI – If there is one thing at which China’s leaders truly excel, it is the use of economic tools to advance their country’s geostrategic interests. Through its $1 trillion “one belt, one road” initiative, China is supporting infrastructure projects in strategically located developing countries, often by extending huge loans to their governments. As a result, countries are becoming ensnared in a debt trap that leaves them vulnerable to China’s influence.

Of course, extending loans for infrastructure projects is not inherently bad. But the projects that China is supporting are often intended not to support the local economy, but to facilitate Chinese access to natural resources, or to open the market for low-cost and shoddy Chinese goods. In many cases, China even sends its own construction workers, minimizing the number of local jobs that are created.

rsingh · Post by **rsingh** » 24 Jan 2017 23:14

g.sarkar wrote:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/new ... 738070.cms
Diplomat says China would assume world leadership if needed
By Reuters | Updated: Jan 23, 2017, 07.40 PM IST
BEIJING: China does not want world leadership but could be forced to assume that role if others step back from that position, a senior Chinese diplomat said on Monday, after US President Donald Trump pledged to put "America first" in his first speech.
Zhang Jun, director general of the Chinese Foreign Ministry's international economics department, made the comments during a briefing with foreign journalists to discuss President Xi Jinping's visit to Switzerland last week.
...
Topping the bill at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Xi portrayed China as the leader of a globalised world where only international cooperation could solve the big problems.
Speaking days before Trump assumed the presidency, Xi also urged countries to resist isolationism, signalling Beijing's desire to play a bigger role on the global stage.
Elaborating on that theme, Zhang said China had no intention of seeking global leadership.
"If anyone were to say China is playing a leadership role in the world I would say it's not China rushing to the front but rather the front runners have stepped back leaving the place to China," Zhang said.
....
Gautam

It is not "if needed". It is "if given". Even African lil countries are not ready for that..........forget the real powers.

panduranghari · Post by **panduranghari** » 24 Jan 2017 23:29

Are these moves by the Chinese a signal that things internally are in tremendous flux?

g.sarkar · Post by **g.sarkar** » 25 Jan 2017 01:04

rsingh wrote: It is not "if needed". It is "if given". Even African lil countries are not ready for that..........forget the real powers.

Never given, it is always taken. So solly.
Gautam

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 25 Jan 2017 02:08

panduranghari wrote:Are these moves by the Chinese a signal that things internally are in tremendous flux?

Very much so.

We need to do a textual analysis of Xi JinPing speeches at Davos and Raisiana Dialogues.

Its basically a plea to keep the markets open to Chinese goods as they pivot inwards.

Meantime we have US economy under Trump moving away from China which was started by Bill Clinton whom Lootyens adores.